Rag Quilt

For my next quilt project I wanted to use up some of what I have laying around my crafting area. I have made several baby quilts out of Moda's Lily and Will is the past and had a lot of 5" squares, I also have lots of scrap batting. Together these two items crate a rag quilt. I purchased three packs of Moda Bella Solids squares in Porcelain which is an off white color.

First I sewed the sandwich which is a white square, a 4" batting square and a print, an X is sewn across the square. Next I laid them out to find the best size arrangement and color organization.

Next the squares are sewn into rows, then the rows are sewn together. The key to a rag quilt is the frayed edges of all the squares, the seams are sew out and then snipped. This time I purchased a pair on snips which made this much easier. I have washed and dried it twice to get the fraying going and it will still need a few more cycles. Here is the finished quilt:

A little closer look:

And closer:

And here is the back:

Pruning

It is that time of year again although the weather is definitely not cooperating. California is facing a third year of drought and by far the worst year on record for rain. Along with the lack of rain is a lack of winter. We had about one week of actual cold weather, other than that it has been quite warm. This means that the plants have not gone dormant like they should. Usually you want to prune just after the coldest part of winter and before spring kicks in. This is the time of year it would usually be done so I went ahead and pruned. I did not take before pictures this year but caught the after.

I went drastic on the pomegranate, cutting it more than I have in the past, especially with the height.

The grapes were trimmed back to leave a main stalk and a few off shoots to train along the wires, they are almost done in this picture. 

Finally there are the roses, I went easy on them this year, mostly just trimmed and cleaned them up.

Super Hero Cape

Katie like most kids loves dressing up, she also love super heroes. When getting things together for her Halloween costume I found a pattern that she loved, McCalls 6626. This pattern has all the pieces needed to deck your kid out in all super hero gear. Katie loves pink and black and wanted everything follow this color palette. Most of the pieces are made of felt but the cape can be made of a wide variety of fabrics. (I also used this pattern to make Katies Darth Vader belt.) This project got set aside for awhile but Katie has not forgotten about her pink and black cape so I decided it was time to finish it and pulled it out today and ask my Mom to sew it. After that it was a matter of adding some eyelets and finishing it off.

The fabric is pink and black satin and by using eyelets for the ties it will be much stronger to handle the activities of a 5 year old.

I think she likes it and may even be wearing it to bed tonight as it has only come off her body for the pictures since it was finished. (And yes those are her Darth Vader slippers she is wearing)

Button Monogram

Time for the first craft project of 2014! I saw a craft project on JoAnns site a few months ago and wanted to try it. It was a monogram on a canvas made from buttons. I purchased a 10x10 canvas with a coupon from JoAnns and set out to find some inexpensive button. I ended up purchasing them from Oriental Trading Company for a really good price.

Here are the supplies I started with, not pictures is the glue, I used my E6000. The K was created in PhotoShop, made a 10x10 image the looked for the font and size that I thought would work.

I cut the K out and traced it on the canvas with pencil.

I then sorted through the buttons looking for the pink shades. I then set them out in the K to make sure I had enough. Next came the glue and gluing them down. 

This project took no more that 30 minutes and was very easy. Here it is on Katie's bedroom wall.

Bisque Ornaments

In the days before Christmas I started painting a set of Bisque Christmas Ornaments I had ordered from Mary Maxim along with our other craft kits. These ornaments use a metallic paint which give them a very nice finish. Several coats of paint are required to get the effect to look right. It was a nice relaxing project that we were able to add to the tree when they dried.